This invention relates generally to dampers for controlling air flow, and, more particularly, to dampers for controlling air flow within refrigerators.
Conventionally, multi-compartment refrigerators include a fresh food compartment and a freezer compartment for chilling and preserving food items at respective desired temperatures. Typically, the fresh food compartment is set to a user adjustable setting and is thermostatically controlled to energize a refrigeration circuit (i.e., evaporator, condenser, etc.) to generate cooled air for introduction into the fresh food compartment. When the refrigeration circuit is energized, evaporator air is also introduced into the freezer compartment, and the temperature of the freezer compartment is controlled according to a user adjustable damper located in a flow path between the fresh food compartment and the freezer compartment. When the damper is fully closed, air flow from the freezer compartment into the fresh food compartment is substantially prevented, thereby maintaining the cooled evaporator air in the freezer compartment and lowering the freezer compartment temperature. When the damper is fully open, an appreciable amount of air from the freezer compartment flows into the fresh food compartment, thereby increasing the temperature of the freezer compartment.
Typically, the damper is a pivoting plate or baffle located in a flow path, and the plate pivots about an axis in the plane of the plate to obstruct or permit air flow through the flow path. As such, each damper is dedicated to a flow path, and a plurality of dedicated dampers is needed for different air flow paths. The plurality of dedicated dampers undesirably increases the quantity of parts needed, and complicates the mechanical configuration within the refrigerator.